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Topic: WW3 US vs Iran (Read 8896 times)

The US military is sending a carrier strike group, a bomber task force, fighter jets, an amphibious landing ship, and a surface-to-air missile battery to the Middle East as a show of force to Iran. There is a ton of firepower heading that way.

The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, which consists of the carrier and its powerful carrier air wing, as well as one cruiser and four destroyers, began moving into the region with an unspecified number of B-52 Stratofortress heavy long-range bombers earlier this week.

US Air Forces Central Command announced Thursday that F-15C Eagle fighter jets were repositioned within the theater to "defend US forces and interests in the region." On Friday, the Pentagon announced that the USS Arlington, an amphibious landing ship, and a Patriot surface-to-air missile battery are on their way.

Spain has decided that it doesn't want its frigate sailing with the USS Abraham Lincoln into the Persian Gulf to challenge Iran.The Spanish defense ministry announced Tuesday that the new mission is inconsistent with the agreement on joint operations signed by the US and Spain.The Spanish warship will rejoin the carrier strike group once its deterrence mission concludes and it returns to regularly-scheduled operations.

The US military briefed President Donald Trump's national-security aides on a revamped plan that could result in the deployment of up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East, according to national-security officials cited in a New York Times report published Monday.

The reported plan calls for the deployment of troops in the event that Iran either attacks US forces or ramps up its nuclear-weapons program, several unnamed US officials told The Times.

The plan does not indicate whether US troops would invade Iran, the newspaper said. The number of troops deployed to the Middle East would be close to the roughly 130,600 service members deployed to Iraq in 2003.

Pictures showing Iranian paramilitary forces loading missiles onto boats are behind a recent sharp escalation in tensions between the US and Iran, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The May 3 overhead images showed fully assembled missiles being loaded onto boats in the Persian Gulf, three officials told The Times, raising concerns that they could be used by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps to target US Navy vessels.

Other intelligence reportedly hints at threats to commercial shipping vessels and to US troops in Iraq from Tehran-backed militias.

A top Iranian general has told Iran-backed militias in Iraq to “prepare for proxy war” in the wake of heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S., which accused the militias of moving missiles toward American forces.

Qassem Soleimani, a commander of Iran’s extraterritorial military operations Quds Force, called for a meeting with the militias three weeks ago, but the exact timing of the gathering remains unclear, the Guardian reported Thursday.

“It wasn’t a call to arms, but it wasn’t far off,” a senior intelligence source told the newspaper.The meeting likely played a role in the Trump administration’s decision this week to pull all non-essential government staff from Iraq. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Iraqi officials that Iran-backed militias have moved their missiles near to the bases housing Americans.

Other countries soon followed the threat assessment of the U.S., with Britain raising threat levels for its troops in Iraq on Thursday. Both Germany and the Netherlands suspended a training mission in Iraq.

But intelligence collected by the U.S. government appears to also suggest that both Iran and the U.S. may have misread each other as being offensive rather than defensive, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Iran apparently thought the U.S. was planning an attack on Iran, which prompted the regime to prepare for counterstrikes.

MIKE POMPEO SAID IRAN-BACKED MILITIAS MOVED ROCKETS NEAR AMERICAN BASES IN IRAQ

At the same time, some within the Trump administration say that the same intelligence also suggests that Iran was planning to strike first. Such intelligence may have formed the basis of Pompeo’s claim during his meeting with the Iraqi top brass.

Iran has recently threatened to pull out of the nuclear deal and resume higher uranium enrichment if no new deal is put in place, while Pompeo told the Iraqi top brass that U.S. intelligence showed Iran-backed militias moved missiles near bases housing American forces.

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Zarif, on Thursday deemed new sanctions imposed by the Trump administration as “unacceptable” but noted that the country is committed to the nuclear deal.

“We believe that escalation by the United States is unacceptable and uncalled for. We have exercised maximum restraints,” he said during a visit to Japan.